Pecan Cinnamon Rolls with Coffee Icing

Not to be confused with pecan sticky buns (which are covered in gooey caramel sauce and no icing), these Pecan Cinnamon Rolls are just that – wonderfully fluffy cinnamon rolls, filled with little pecan morsels and topped with a simple coffee icing.

Coffee! My favourite waker-uperer and convenient hand warmer and now I have a way to combine this with breakfast and fresh bread all into one sweet, delicious treat. If you don’t like coffee, don’t worry. I have some tips to easily swap it for vanilla or chocolate too.

These are yeasted cinnamon rolls, just like making a regular bread dough except this is a sweet bread dough. Don’t worry, active dry yeast or instant yeast is very simple to use.

If the thought of making bread sounds daunting or time-consuming, never fear. This is my tried and true sweet bread dough recipe and it never fails me. This recipe is an adaptation of my White Chocolate Cranberry Hot Cross Buns and, later, these Strawberry Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls.

Hands on time: roughly 30 minutes and that includes you kneading by hand. And check out the list of simple ingredients.

Why you’ll love these Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

• Totally delicious and they smell divine
• Sweet, sticky, nutty
• Warming and comforting
• Simple, everyday ingredients
• Can be started the night before
• Made completely from scratch so you know what’s in them
• A special, indulgent brunch or breakfast treat

Ingredients in cinnamon rolls

So if you’re ready to get started on baking up a batch of these gorgeous coffee sweet rolls, here are the ingredients you’ll need.

• Dough: Butter, milk, plain (all-purpose) flour, yeast, white sugar, salt and egg.
• Filling & topping: Cinnamon, brown sugar, pecans, maple syrup.
• Icing: instant coffee, cream and icing (powdered) sugar.

How to make Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

Make the dough: Heat a little milk and butter until melted together, then combine with the remaining dough ingredients. Knead it in a stand mixer or by hand. (Images 1 & 2)

Let the dough rise: Place the smooth and elastic dough into a greased glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it sit to rise for 45 minutes – 1 hour (this will depend on the ambient temperature in your home) (Image 3)

Roll it out and fill: Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, then brush over melted butter and sprinkle over the filling. (Images 4 & 5)

Cut it into rolls: Roll the dough up (from long side to long side), then cut it into 12 even portions (Image 6)

Second rise: Place the rolls, side by side in a greased 9×13 baking tin or casserole dish and lay a light tea towel over the top. (Images 7 & 8)

Bake: Brush the rolls with an egg wash, then scatter over some pecans mixed with maple syrup. Bake for 25 minutes until deep golden. Take them out and let them cool in the tin. (Image 9)

Make the icing: Heat together some cream and instant coffee in the microwave then mix through sifted icing (powdered) sugar. Pipe or spread it over your buns.

I find making bread deeply satisfying. Watching the ingredients evolve from a lumpy mess when they’re first mixed together into soft, fluffy bread just soothes me.

Important notes

• Make sure you don’t use old yeast. Yeast is perishable, so keep it stored in your fridge and always use it by the use by date. If it’s been sitting around in your cupboard for 6 months, you’ll want to test it first by mixing some with a little warm (not hot) water. After 5-10 minutes it should look bubbly. If not, it’s probably dead and you’ll need to start with a new pack.
• Don’t add the salt directly on top of the yeast as it can kill it and the yeast may not work. I always put my dough ingredients into the bowl flour, yeast, sugar, salt, to keep them separate.
• Make sure your milk mixture is just warm, not hot, to the touch. In my recipes, I start with cold milk and heat just 1/3 of it with the butter until melted. Adding the remaining cold milk once it comes off the stove is a simple way of achieving a tepid / warm temperature. Hot liquid will kill your yeast.
• Resting / rising is a must. When you knead and roll dough, gluten develops which stiffens up the dough. Letting the dough rest is crucial to let it relax and give you a softer bread with more volume. Imagine you get home from work and your muscles are tight and sore, then you relax and your muscles soften. Same thing. Kinda. Not really.

When it’s broken down into steps like this, you truly can see how simple the process is. I promise your home will be filled with the most wonderful, cosy aroma of cinnamon and bread all at once and just try not to eat one, still warm from the oven

Variations and substitutions

• Coffee: Want to change that icing to another flavour? It’s easy. Swap the coffee for cocoa and make a chocolate version, or swap it for 2 teaspoons of vanilla and make a vanilla icing. You could even make a strawberry icing as on my Strawberry Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls.
• Nuts: The pecans work a treat but use whatever nuts you love – walnuts, almonds, macadamias – all would be lovely.
• Star bread: I recently turned this recipe into a Nutella Star Bread too.  This showstopping dessert is a gorgeous sweet brunch.
• Jumbo: Make them jumbo sized like these Jumbo Swedish Cinnamon Rolls.
• Giant: Whats bigger than jumbo? GIANT. Make this exact recipe but with the same rolling method of this giant chocolate scroll.
• Cookies: Try these Oreo cinnamon rolls.

Can I make cinnamon rolls ahead

You can make these cinnamon rolls the night before, right up to the step where you place them on the baking tray. Cover the baking tray with plastic wrap and place them in the fridge. When you’re ready to bake them, loosen the plastic wrap and let them come to room temperature (1-2 hours). Then continue as per the recipe.

Serving and storage

These pecan cinnamon rolls are best fresh. You can eat them warm from the oven but the icing will soften and run. The other option is to wait until they get to room temperature before icing and serving.

If you’re lucky enough to have any leftover, reheat them just slightly in the microwave for 10 seconds to fluff them back up.

I think these are the absolute best cinnamon rolls (I may be biased) so please give them a try. With pecans strewn throughout and on top and a glorious soft coffee icing, I know you’ll love them too.

MORE RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE

• Iced Buns (with coconut)
• Coffee Cake Muffins
  
• Chocolate Crumb Cake
  
• Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls
• Easy Fluffy Pancakes
  
• Waffle Brownies
• Homemade Crumpets
• Raspberry Rolls